The contract with the Inlandboatmen’s Union expired at midnight June 30th. Golden Gate Ferry management has been at the bargaining table, in good faith, for several months now. At about 3 pm Thursday, June 30th, Golden Gate Ferry learned of a press release issued to the media by the Inlandboatmen’s Union indicating that the Golden Gate Ferry Ticket Agents would undertake a one-day strike, commencing at 4:00 a.m. on Friday, July 1st and continuing until 10:00 p.m. We were surprised to learn of this press release and the action announced in the press release as the Union did not inform the Golden Gate Ferry management of their intended action.

As Golden Gate Ferry was not informed of this decision to strike, and in light of the press release, it was decided that the best course of action to minimize impacts to our riders, was to announce now that Golden Gate Ferry would not be in service on Friday, July 1st. We swiftly moved to ensure that customers learned of this decision through media interviews, customer e-blasts, Twitter and Facebook announcements.

Then by about 9 or 10 pm Thursday night we heard rumors that the Union had in fact changed their mind and were not going to strike after all. The District contacted the Union regarding the rumors and obtained verbal confirmation that the rumors, which were contrary to the Union’s published press release, were true.

Given that Golden Gate Ferry had not been informed of the original decisions to strike, we chose very carefully to wait until this morning to see if the work force reported to duty before re-announcing the change as we were not 100% confident that the strike was in fact called off. By about 5:30 am this morning, we were able to confirm that we had the work force present and could run service.

Again, we apologize for this interruption to our service and we are hopeful that the Inlandboatmen’s Union will more clearly communicate their intentions in the future.